Death toll from Kharkiv attack rises to 14 as Zelensky warns against Russian troop movements

SAMYA KULLAB, Associated Press

20 minutes ago

Firefighters put out a fire after two guided bombs hit a large building materials store in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 25, 2024. The writing reads “Garden Center.” (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia was preparing to step up its offensive along Ukraine's northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in a deadly attack. aerial bomb against a large building materials store in the city of Kharkiv.

The shelling of Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon also left 43 injured and 16 missing, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said initially after the attack.

In a video statement broadcast from Kharkiv, Zelensky said Russia was preparing offensive actions 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Ukraine's second-largest city. He said the Russians are “assemblying another group of troops near our border.”

He did not specify where the troops are gathered, but Ukrainian officials have expressed serious concerns about the Sumy region. The city of Kharkiv and Sumy, with around 250,000 inhabitants, are approximately 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Russian border.

Moscow troops have captured villages in the Kharkiv region in recent weeks as part of a broad offensive, and analysts say they may try to get within artillery range of the city. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 11,000 people from the region since the offensive began on May 10.

Russian forces are carrying out offensive attacks across the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, with pitched battles in the direction of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, where “the intensity of hostilities is quite high”, according to a press release from the Ukrainian government. General Staff. “The defense forces are taking measures to prevent the advance of the enemy,” the statement said.

Russia launched large-scale missile and drone attacks on large parts of Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian officials said air defense units intercepted 31 Shahed drones and 12 cruise missiles launched by Russia in the Mykolaiv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia and Chernihiv regions.

In total, Russia launched 14 missiles and more than three dozen drones, according to a Ukrainian Air Force statement. It is unclear what damage may have been caused by the missiles and drones that were not shot down.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, located across the border with Ukraine, said four people were injured in Ukrainian attacks overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said seven drones were shot down over the Kursk region and three over Orel, both located north of Belgorod.

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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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